System and method for generating a power receiver identifier in a wireless power network

ABSTRACT

Embodiments in the present disclosure may be directed to a system and method that may be used to generate a unique identifier for one or more wireless power devices such as one or more wireless power receivers, wireless power transmitters, GUI management devices, and system management servers among others, within a wireless power network. The method may use automated software embedded on a chip that may run when a wireless power device boots up for the first time. The unique ID may allow easy associations of wireless power devices with user defined names.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present disclosure is related to U.S. non-provisional patentapplication DWV-3DPF-010 entitled “Methodology for Pocket-forming”; andDWV-3DPF-028 entitled “Methodology for Multiple Pocket-Forming”;DWV-3DPF-015 entitled “Method for 3 Dimensional Pocket-forming”;DWV-3DPF-027 entitled “Receivers for Wireless Power Transmission”;DWV-3DPF-029 entitled “Transmitters for Wireless Power Transmission”invented by Michael Leabman, each of which are incorporated by referencein their entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless power networks, andmore specifically to a system and method for generating a wireless powerreceiver identifier in a wireless power network.

Background Information

Electronic devices such as laptop computers, smartphones, portablegaming devices, tablets and so forth may require power for performingtheir intended functions. This may require having to charge electronicequipment at least once a day, or in high-demand electronic devices morethan once a day. Such an activity may be tedious and may represent aburden to users. For example, a user may be required to carry chargersin case his electronic equipment is lacking power. In addition, usershave to find available power sources to connect to. Lastly, users mustplugin to a wall power socket or other power supply to be able to chargehis or her electronic device.

An approach to mitigate this issue may include using RF waves throughsuitable power transmission techniques such as pocket-forming. Thisapproach may provide wireless power transmission while eliminating theuse of wires or pads for charging devices. In addition, electronicequipment may require less components as typical wall chargers may notbe required. In some cases, even batteries may be eliminated as a devicemay fully be powered wirelessly.

The approach may enable the creation of wireless power networks similarin structure to regular wireless local area networks (WLAN) where awireless access point is used to provide internet or intranet access todifferent wireless devices. A wireless power transmitter may providewireless power charging to a plurality of wireless power receiverdevices. As in a WLAN, a wireless power network may require a way toidentify and associate wireless power receivers to have better controlof such devices to when and which device to charge.

For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a way to identify andcontrol wireless power receiver devices within a wireless power network.

SUMMARY

Embodiments in the present disclosure may be directed to a system andmethod for generating a unique identifier for one or more wireless powerdevices (that is, one or more wireless power receivers, wireless powertransmitters, or GUI management devices, or system management servers,and others) within a wireless power network. The system and method mayinclude suitable automated software embedded on a chip that may run whena wireless power device boots up for the first time. The unique ID mayallow easy associations of wireless power devices with different userdefined names.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, a system architecture that mayenable the registration and communication controls between wirelesspower transmitter and one or more wireless power receivers is disclosed.Wireless power receivers may include covers or customer pocket-formingenabled devices.

In one embodiment, wireless power transmitter may include amicroprocessor that integrates a power transmitter manager app (PWR TXMGR APP), and a third party application programming interface (thirdparty API) for a Bluetooth Low Energy chip (BTLE CHIP HW). Wirelesspower transmitter may also include an antenna manager software (AntennaMGR Software) to control an RF antenna array that may be used to formcontrolled RF waves which may converge in 3-D space and create pocketsof energy on wireless power receivers (covers or customer pocket-formingenabled devices).

In another embodiment, covers may include a power receiver app (PWR RXAPP), a third party application programming interface (third party API)for a Bluetooth Low Energy chip (BTLE CHIP HW), and a radio frequency(RF) antenna array which may be used to receive and utilize the pocketsof energy sent from wireless power transmitter.

In yet another embodiment, customer pocket-forming enabled devices mayrefer to a wireless device such as smartphones, tablets, or any of thelike that may include an integrated wireless power receiver chip (notshown in FIG. 1) for wireless power charging. Customer pocket-formingenabled devices may include a power receiver app (PWR RX APP), and athird party application programming interface (third party API) for aBluetooth Low Energy chip (BTLE CHIP HW). Customer pocket-formingenabled devices may also include an RF antenna array which may used toreceive and utilize pockets of energy sent from wireless powertransmitter. GUI may be downloaded from any suitable application storeand may run on any suitable operating system such as iOS and Android,among others.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, an exemplary method may beused to generate a unique identifier for wireless power devices within awireless power network is disclosed. The method may employ suitablesoftware embedded on a chip that may be triggered the first time awireless power receiver is turned on. The method may first check if a NVRAM ID flag is set in the wireless power receiver, if the ID flag is setthen the software reads the ID from the NV RAM (at a different address)and continues normal operation. If ID flag is not set, the software runsa suitable random number generator method to generate a random ID whichmay be 32-bits or greater. Once the ID is generated, the software writesthe ID to NV RAM unique address. Finally, the software may write theunique 32-bits (or greater) ID flag to NV RAM unique address, read IDfrom NV RAM and continue normal operation.

In another embodiment, the method may also be used to not only generateunique IDs for wireless power receivers, but also to generate unique IDsfor wireless power transmitters and GUIs. By generating unique IDs foreach of the components in a wireless power network, the components maybe more easily associated to users and have friendly names. For example,a user may have in his or her home more than one wireless powertransmitter located at different places such as the living room, thebedrooms, and the kitchen among others. Then the power transmitter'sunique ID may be associated with a custom label, stored in saidtransmitter's system database, for each of the wireless powertransmitters at different locations.

In a further aspect of the present disclosure, a flowchart of a methodfor registering and associating a wireless power receiver to a wirelesspower network is provided. The method may include automated softwareembedded on a wireless power receiver chip that may be triggered when awireless power receiver boots up. Therefore, the method may start when awireless power receiver boots up when turned on by the user. Then, thewireless power receiver broadcasts ads, which may include an unique IDnumber, to any power transmitter manager and GUI that is within itsrange. Then, power transmitter manager and GUI, that are within range ofthe wireless power receiver broadcast, receive and decode theadvertisement. Subsequently, power transmitter manager may store theunique ID number of said wireless power receiver in a database. Thisdatabase may serve to store relevant information from wireless powerreceivers such as, identifiers, voltage ranges, location, signalstrength and/or any relevant information from the wireless powerreceiver. Following the method, GUI may update and sync all relevantinformation in its copy of the system database, for better control ofthe wireless power devices. GUI may then ask the user to assign a namefor the wireless power receiver that may have joined the wireless powernetwork. Finally, the user assigns a name of its preference and the GUIsyncs that name with the database.

Numerous other aspects, features and benefits of the present disclosuremay be made apparent from the following detailed description takentogether with the drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure can be better understood by referring to thefollowing figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily toscale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles ofthe disclosure. In the figures, reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the different views.

FIG. 1 shows a system architecture in which one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure may operate;

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method that may be used to generate aunique identifier for a wireless power receiver device within a wirelesspower network; and

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a method for registering and associating awireless power receiver to a wireless power network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is here described in detail with reference toembodiments illustrated in the drawings, which form a part here. Otherembodiments may be used and/or other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Theillustrative embodiments described in the detailed description are notmeant to be limiting of the subject matter presented here.

Definitions

As used here, the following terms may have the following definitions:

“Real time communication” refers to communicating the status of data atthe receiver at the continuing present time, where a proprietaryalgorithm may read the present state of important information at thereceiver continually and rapidly with only 1/100th of a second of delay.

“Transmitter” may refer to a device, including a chip which may generatetwo or more RF signals, at least one RF signal being phase shifted andgain adjusted with respect to other RF signals, substantially all ofwhich pass through one or more RF antenna such that focused RF signalsare directed to a target.

“Receiver” may refer to a device including at least one antenna element,at least one rectifying circuit and at least one power converter, whichmay utilize pockets of energy for powering, or charging an electronicdevice.

“Pocket-forming” may refer to generating two or more RF waves whichconverge in 3-D space, forming controlled constructive and destructiveinterference patterns.

“Pockets of energy” may refer to areas or regions of space where energyor power may accumulate in the form of constructive interferencepatterns of RF waves.

Description of the Drawings

Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated inthe drawings, and specific language will be used here to describe thesame. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scopeof the invention is thereby intended. Alterations and furthermodifications of the inventive features illustrated here, and additionalapplications of the principles of the inventions as illustrated here,which would occur to one skilled in the relevant art and havingpossession of this disclosure, are to be considered within the scope ofthe invention.

FIG. 1 shows a system architecture 100 for a wireless power network,according to an embodiment. System architecture 100 may enable theregistration and communication controls between wireless powertransmitter 102 and one or more wireless power receivers within awireless power network. Wireless power receivers may include covers 104and customer pocket-forming enabled devices 106.

In one embodiment, wireless power transmitter 102 may include amicroprocessor that integrates a power transmitter manager app 108 (PWRTX MGR APP), and a third party application programming interface 110(Third Party API) for a Bluetooth Low Energy chip 112 (BTLE CHIP HW).Wireless power transmitter 102 may also include an antenna managersoftware 114 (Antenna MGR Software) to control an RF antenna array 116that may be used to transmit controlled Radio Frequency (RF) waves whichmay converge in 3-D space. These RF waves may be controlled throughphase and/or relative amplitude adjustments to form constructive anddestructive interference patterns (pocket-forming). Pockets of energymay form at constructive interference patterns that may be 3-Dimensionalin shape whereas null-spaces may be generated at destructiveinterference patterns. Pockets of energy may be formed on wireless powerreceivers (covers 104 and customer pocket-forming enabled devices 106).In some embodiment, Bluetooth Low Energy chip 112 may be another type ofwireless protocol such as WiFi or the like.

Power transmitter manager app 108 may include a database (not shown),which may store relevant information from wireless power receivers suchas, identifiers, voltage ranges, location, signal strength and/or anyrelevant information from the wireless power receiver.

Power transmitter manager app 108 may call third party applicationprogramming interface 110 for running a plurality of functions such asstart a connection, end a connection, and send data among others. Thirdparty application programming interface 110 may command Bluetooth LowEnergy chip 112 according to the functions called by power transmittermanager app 108.

Third party application programming interface 110 at the same time maycall power transmitter manager app 108 through a callback function whichmay be registered in the power transmitter manager app 108 at boot time.Third party application programming interface 110 may have a timercallback that may go for ten times a second, and may send callbacksevery time a connection begins, a connection ends, a connection isattempted, or a message is received.

Covers 104 may include a power receiver app 118 (PWR RX APP), a thirdparty application programming interface 120 (Third party API) for aBluetooth Low Energy chip 122 (BTLE CHIP HW), and a RF antenna array 124which may be used to receive and utilize the pockets of energy sent fromwireless power transmitter 102.

Power receiver app 118 may call third party application programminginterface 120 for running a plurality of functions such as start aconnection, end the connection, and send data among others. Third partyapplication programming interface 120 may have a timer callback that maygo for ten times a second, and may send callbacks every time aconnection begins, a connection ends, a connection is attempted, ormessage is received.

Covers 104 may be paired to a wireless device such as a smartphone, ortablet among others via a BTLE connection 126 by using a graphical userinterface (GUI 128) that may be downloaded from any suitable applicationstore and may run on any suitable operating system such as iOS andAndroid, among others. Covers 104 may also communicate with wirelesspower transmitter 102 via a BTLE connection 126 to send important datasuch as an identifier for the device as well as battery levelinformation, antenna voltage, geographic location data, real-timereceived power feedback, or other information that may be of use for thewireless power transmitter 102.

In other embodiments, GUI 128 may also be installed on a wireless device(smartphones or tablets) that may not have the cover 104. GUI 128 mayperform operations to communicate with power transmitter manager app 108via BTLE connection 126 or any other wireless communication protocolssuch as WiFi, and LAN among others.

Customer pocket-forming enabled devices 106 may refer to a wirelessdevice such as smartphones, tablets, or any of the like that may includean integrated wireless power receiver chip (not shown in FIG. 1) forwireless power charging. Customer pocket-forming enabled devices 106 mayinclude a power receiver app 130 (PWR RX APP), and a third partyapplication programming interface 132 (Third Party API) for a BluetoothLow Energy chip 134 (BTLE CHIP HW). Customer pocket-forming enableddevices 106 may also include an RF antenna array 136 which may used toreceive and utilize pockets of energy sent from wireless powertransmitter 102. GUI 138 may be downloaded from any suitable applicationstore and may run on any suitable operating system such as iOS andAndroid, among others.

Power receiver app 130 may call third party application programminginterface 132 for running a plurality of functions such as start aconnection, end the connection, and send data among others. Third partyapplication programming interface 132 may have a timer callback that maygo for ten times a second, and may send callbacks every time aconnection begins, a connection ends, a connection is attempted, ormessage is received.

Customer pocket-forming enabled devices 106 may also communicate withwireless power transmitter 102 via a BTLE connection 126 to sendimportant data such as an identifier for the device as well as batterylevel information, antenna voltage, geographic location data, real-timereceived power feedback, or other information that may be of use for thewireless power transmitter 102.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method 200 that may be used to generate aunique identifier for one or more wireless power receiver within awireless power network.

Method 200 may include automated software embedded on a wireless powerreceiver chip that may be triggered the first time a wireless powerreceiver is turned on.

In one embodiment, method 200 may start at step 202 when a wirelesspower receiver, either a cover or a customer pocket-forming enabledevice, boots up the first time within a wireless power network. Then,at step 204, method 200 may check if the ID flag at a unique address isin non-volatile (NV) RAM is set in the wireless power receiver. If IDflag is set, at step 206, the method 200 reads from its unique addressin NVRAM in the wireless power receiver and it continues normaloperation. If ID flag is not set, then at step 208, the method 200triggers a suitable random number generator method to generate a randomID which may be 32-bits or greater. Once the ID is generated, at step210, the method 200 writes the ID to its unique address in NV RAM.Finally, at step 212, method 200 may write the unique 32-bits (orgreater) ID flag to unique address in NV RAM, read ID from NV RAM andcontinue normal operation.

In another embodiment, method 200 may also be used to not only generateunique IDs for wireless power receivers, but also to generate unique IDsfor wireless power transmitters and GUIs. By generating unique IDs foreach of the components in a wireless power network, the components maybe more easily associated to users and have friendly names. For example,a user may have in his or her home more than one wireless powertransmitter located at different places such as the living room,bedrooms, and kitchen among others. Then the power transmitter's uniqueID may be associated with a custom label for each of the wireless powertransmitters at different locations.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a method 300 for registering and associatingone or more wireless power receivers to a wireless power network.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, method 300 may includeautomated software embedded on a wireless power receiver chip that maybe triggered when a wireless power receiver boots up. Therefore, method300 may start at step 302, when a wireless power receiver boots up whenturned on by the user. Then, at step 304, the wireless power receiverbroadcasts advertisement, which may include a unique ID number, to anypower transmitter manager and GUI that is within its range. Next, atstep 306, power transmitter manager and GUI, that are within the radioof the wireless power receiver broadcast, receive and decode theadvertisement. Then, power transmitter manager, at step 308, may storethe unique ID number of said wireless power receiver in a database. Thisdatabase may serve to store relevant information from wireless powerreceivers such as, identifiers, voltage ranges, location, signalstrength and/or any relevant information. Following method 300, at step310, GUI may update and sync all relevant information from saidtransmitter's database for better control of the wireless power devices.At step 312, GUI may ask the user to assign a name for the wirelesspower receiver that may have joined the wireless power network. Next, atstep 314, the user assigns a name of its preference. Then, at step 316,GUI syncs that name and stores it in its database. Finally, at step 318,power transmitter manager reads name from GUI database and updates itsown database copy. The system database in power transmitter devices andGUI devices may be identical between every device, when up to date. Allsystem devices may operate and communicate so as to keep each one'sdatabase up to date.

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the steps of the various embodiments must be performed inthe order presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the artthe steps in the foregoing embodiments may be performed in any order.Words such as “then,” “next,” etc. are not intended to limit the orderof the steps; these words are simply used to guide the reader throughthe description of the methods. Although process flow diagrams maydescribe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operationscan be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order ofthe operations may be re-arranged. A process may correspond to a method,a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedhere may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentinvention.

Embodiments implemented in computer software may be implemented insoftware, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware descriptionlanguages, or any combination thereof. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement these systems and methods is not limiting of the invention.Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems and methods weredescribed without reference to the specific software code beingunderstood that software and control hardware can be designed toimplement the systems and methods based on the description here.

When implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or moreinstructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable orprocessor-readable storage medium. The steps of a method or algorithmdisclosed here may be embodied in a processor-executable software modulewhich may reside on a computer-readable or processor-readable storagemedium. A non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable mediaincludes both computer storage media and tangible storage media thatfacilitate transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Anon-transitory processor-readable storage media may be any availablemedia that may be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such non-transitory processor-readable media may compriseRAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible storagemedium that may be used to store desired program code in the form ofinstructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a computeror processor. Disk and disc, as used here, include compact disc (CD),laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, andBlu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, whilediscs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.Additionally, the operations of a method or algorithm may reside as oneor any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on anon-transitory processor-readable medium and/or computer-readablemedium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedhere may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown here but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and theprinciples and novel features disclosed here.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for wirelessly receiving power,comprising: a processor; a wireless communication radio, operativelycoupled to the processor; memory, operatively coupled to the processor;and a power receiver operatively coupled to the processor, the powerreceiver being configured to wirelessly radio frequency (RF) waves thatconverge and constructively interfere near the power receiver, whereinthe controlled RF waves are wirelessly transmitted by a remote powertransmitter to the power receiver after the power receiver has joined awireless power network that includes the remote power transmitter,wherein the processor is configured to; obtain a unique identifier ofthe power receiver, wherein the unique identifier is (i) retrieved fromthe memory and (ii) used to join the wireless power network; and afterthe power receiver has joined the wireless power network; cause thepower receiver to begin wirelessly receiving the controlled RF waves andutilizing energy from the constructively interfering RF waves to providepower or charge to the apparatus; receive a request from a deviceassociated with the wireless power network to provide a user-assignedname for the power receiver; and in response to receiving the request:instruct a user of the apparatus to provide the user-assigned name forthe power receiver; and transmit the user-assigned name to the deviceassociated with the wireless power network, wherein the user-assignedname is used to identify the power receiver to a plurality of devicesassociated with the wireless power network.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the memory is a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). 3.The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configure todetermine if the unique identifier of the power receiver is stored at aunique address in the NVRAM memory.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe processor is further configured to generate the unique identifier ofthe power receiver using a random number generator.
 5. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine if theunique identifier of the power receiver is stored in the memory during aboot-up process.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising atleast one of a power receiver app, an application programming interfaceand a graphical user interface.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein theuser-assigned name is received via the graphical user interface.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the device associated with the wirelesspower network is the remote power transmitter.
 9. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the device associated with the wireless power network is apower transmitter manager that controls operation of the remote powertransmitter.
 10. A method for wirelessly receiving power, the methodcomprising: at an apparatus with a processor, a wireless communicationradio, memory, and a power receiver operatively coupled to theprocessor, the power receiver being configured to wirelessly receivecontrolled radio frequency (RF) waves that converge and constructivelyinterfere near the power receiver, wherein the controlled RF waves arewirelessly transmitted by a remote power transmitter to the powerreceiver after the power receiver has joined a wireless power networkthat includes the remote power transmitter: obtaining a uniqueidentifier of the power receiver, wherein the unique identifier is (i)retrieved from the memory and (ii) used to join the wireless powernetwork; and after the power receiver has joined the wireless powernetwork: causing the power receiver to begin wirelessly receiving thecontrolled RF waves and utilizing energy from the constructivelyinterfering RF waves to provide power or charge to the apparatus;receiving a request from a device associated with the wireless powernetwork to provide a user-assigned name for the power receiver; and inresponse to receiving the request: instructing a user of the apparatusto provide the user-assigned name for the power receiver; andtransmitting the user-assigned name to the device associated with thewireless power network, wherein the user-assigned name is used toidentify the power receiver to a plurality of devices associated withthe wireless power network.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thememory is a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).
 12. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the method further comprises determining if the uniqueidentifier of the power receiver is stored at a unique address in theNVRAM memory.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique identifierof the power receiver is generated using a random number generator. 14.The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:determining if the unique identifier of the power receiver is stored inthe memory during a boot-up process.
 15. The method of claim 10, whereinthe device associated with the wireless power network is the remotepower transmitter.
 16. The method of claim 10, wherein the deviceassociated with the wireless power network is a power transmittermanager that controls operation of the remote power transmitter.
 17. Anapparatus for wirelessly transmitting power, comprising: a processor; awireless communication radio, operatively coupled to the processor;memory; operatively coupled to the processor; and a power transmitteroperatively coupled to the processor, the power transmitter beingconfigured to wirelessly transmit controlled radio frequency (RF) wavesthat converge and constructively interfere near a remote power receiver,wherein the controlled RF waves are wirelessly transmitted to the remotepower receiver after the power transmitter has joined a wireless powernetwork that includes the remote power receiver, wherein the processoris configured to; obtain a unique identifier of the power transmitter,wherein the unique identifier is (i) retrieved from the memory and (ii)used to join the wireless power network; and after the power transmitterhas joined the wireless power network: cause the power transmitter tobegin wirelessly transmitting the controlled RF waves to the remotepower receiver, wherein the remote power receiver utilizes energy fromthe constructively interfering RF waves to provide power or charge to anelectronic device; receive a request from a device associated with thewireless power network to provide a user-assigned name for the powertransmitter; and in response to receiving the request: instruct a userof the apparatus to provide the user-assigned name for the powertransmitter; and transmit the user-assigned name to the deviceassociated with the wireless power network, wherein the user-assignedname is used to identify the power transmitter to a plurality of devicesassociated with the wireless power network.
 18. The apparatus of claim17, wherein the memory is a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the processor is furtherconfigure to determine if the unique identifier of the power transmitteris stored at a unique address in the NVRAM memory.
 20. The apparatus ofclaim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to generate theunique identifier of the power transmitter using a random numbergenerator.
 21. The apparatus of claim 17, the processor is furtherconfigured to determine if the unique identifier of the powertransmitter is stored in the memory during a boot-up process.
 22. Theapparatus of claim 17, wherein the device associated with the wirelesspower network is a power transmitter manager that controls operation ofthe power transmitter.